Asylum seekers say they were raped and tortured after Australia sent them back to Sri Lanka

Asylum seekers returned from Australia to Sri Lanka say they have since been raped and tortured in their homeland.

A number of asylum seekers spoke to SBS reporter Dr David Corlett about their experiences since the Australian government rejected their refugee claims and sent them back to Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan asylum seekers sent back by Australia in Galle in July.Credit:AFP

They said they were asked whether they were members of the Tamil Tigers, which lost a civil war with the Sri Lankan government that ended in 2009.

Sri Lankan security forces allegedly kidnapped one man, torturing him in a secret location for more than two months.

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The man, who like all Mr Corlett's interviewees remained anonymous, said he had his fingernails torn out and was hung upside down by his torso.

One woman was gang-raped by Sri Lankan military officials after she returned to Sri Lanka, Dateline reported on Tuesday night.

She said she tried to escape to Australia again but Customs officials intercepted the boat she was on at sea.

An immigration department official interviewed her on an Australian boat via satellite phone, with the help of an interpreter. She said she found it difficult to tell her story in front of other asylum seekers because she was not sure who she could trust.

"On the basis of this brief interview, Australian officials determined that it was safe to send her back," Dr Corlett said in a blog on the SBS website. "When I met her in a secret location....she was living out of a suitcase and moving from house to house. She has since informed me that she has fled her homeland for a (third) time."

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has repeatedly claimed the Abbott government has deterred asylum seekers from coming to Australia by boat, through policies including turning boats back to transit countries. Most recently, the government has secured an agreement from Cambodia to re-settle refugees bound for Australia.

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection said it had removed 165 Sri Lankan asylum seekers who had arrived by boat since its Operation Sovereign Borders started in June.

"We are relying on the same assurances and despite our request we have not received any information that would enable us to investigate these matters further," the department said.

It was "impossible" to determine whether the claims were credible because they were ambiguous and anonymous, it said.

Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to Australia, Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe, described the report as "biased", saying that if Dr Corlett could present any complainant to him they would be "absolutely safe".

It was an "orchestrated biased documentary which is absolutely baseless," he told SBS. "It's trying to portray a wrong picture of Sri Lanka and I totally reject that."

Admiral Samarasinghe said it would be "unprofessional" of Sri Lankan military to ask whether people were Tamil Tiger members.

"Self-infliction of injuries are common in these atrocities," he said. People who were raped or tortured were "free to leave" Sri Lanka.

He would not investigate a UK report "An Unfinished War" which found consistent reports of torture from different interviewees, calling it "propaganda" from a country which was "harbouring terrorists".

The report's author, lawyer Yasmin Sooka, told SBS the "strikingly similar" accounts of abuse showed that it was systematic and planned.